When the Bough Breaks
by Ali-Chan1
Summary: The hardest part is when the bough breaks, falling down and then forgiving. At the loss of her mother & stepfather, her divorce, and gaining her sister who'll help her pick up the pieces? Logan, her almost ex? Or Jess, a love from a lifetime ago?
1. Chapter 1

_**When the Bough Breaks**_

_"Love is stronger then death even if it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take our memories either. In the end life is stronger then death."_

Rory Gilmore always knew that there would come a point in time that she'd have to live without her mother and her best friend just a phone call away. Always knew that children had to bury their parents at some point in their life, but she didn't expect it to come so soon. Or so unexpectedly. But it happened just like that completely unexpectedly. And that's how the pretty and painfully composed 31-year-old ended up standing in front of a mass of people in the small church building of Stars Hollow in the middle of her painstakingly written eulogy. But for a woman who built her words on the ability to string words together the ability had failed her and now she stood in front of everybody she had ever known fighting for control of her emotions and to find the right words to say good-bye to her mother.

"You all knew my mother and Luke to stand up here and tell you about how much they loved each other would…be redundant." Rory takes a deep breath and presses her hand to her stomach, "but the thing is my mom and Luke's love was their life. You could see it when they were in a room together and you can't talk about them without talking about it. And as much as they loved each other, they loved this town. It didn't matter how many times we had to listen to Luke complain it was obvious he loved Stars Hollow and it's residents as much as my mom did." Rory stares at the words written on her note card but they blur and she's left alone with the thoughts floating around in her head.

"Mom always took a great interest in funerals, all funerals actually. And she would always tell me exactly how she wanted hers. She didn't want a lot of people standing around talking about how much they were going to miss her. She wanted people to have a party and talk about the crazy things she always used to do, she wanted it to be a celebration of her life. And Luke, well Luke always wanted what my mother wanted. We all know how hard it is going to be without both of them around, and I think Mom was right to get up here and talk about how much we'll miss her would be a waste of energy. So instead, I think this would be something Mom would have liked a lot more."

Rory takes a step back before nodding to technically person on the other side of the stage. Within moments a white screen drops down and the first notes of The Bangles_ Eternal Flame_ fill the church building and only seconds later the first picture flickers onto the screen. A picture taken at Luke and Lorelai's wedding, with Luke and Lorelai's arms wrapped around Rory and the three of them laughing and mugging for the camera. Rory's eyes are swimming with tears as the pictures change across the screen, but she knew what they were just the same. Pictures of her growing up with Lorelai and Luke floating in the background of birthday pictures and school plays. And more recent pictures taken at Rory's own wedding, pictures of a very pregnant Lorelai, a recent family picture taken only a month ago for Luke's birthday. And even as the last words of _Eternal Flame_ finish the final picture remains, a picture taken at Luke and Lorelai's 10th wedding anniversary party only two weeks ago. A picture that neither Luke nor Lorelai knew had been taken as they stole a kiss in the corner of the diner in their own world and oblivious to the party going on around them.

Rory clears her throat and she avoids eye contact with anyone in the audience, knowing that the picture has probably reduced every last person to tears. "That's the way my Mom and Luke would have wanted you to remember them. In love. With each other. With this town. And with their family." Shakily Rory steps down to allow the reverend to finish off whatever needed to be said, essentially dismissing the assembled group. There would be no carrying the coffins anywhere, infact Rory had already watched her mother be buried an hour before the service started. Lorelai would have hated the thought of everyone watching her coffin be lowered into the ground, so Rory had stood with Sookie, Liz, TJ and Ellie and watched as they buried her mother, and any understanding of her life with her.

"Oh sweetie," Sookie is waiting at the bottom of the stairs with open arms and immediately and Rory clings to her tightly but no tears come. She'll cry, when she's alone in her room and faced with what tomorrow and the day after tomorrow will look like, but right now if she only concentrates minute by minute she can be strong.

Minute by minute had gotten Rory through an hour of the wake after the service; she'd accepted everyone's condolences graciously. Until her stomach turned in an all to familiar way and she'd dashed for the bathroom resorting to concentrating on second by second. Retching into the bathroom had become an all to familiar situation for Rory and the dry heaves make her shake and sweat all of which prevent her from noticing Sookie's appearance beside her until her cool hands pull her hair away from her face.

When Rory's finally able to face Sookie she sighs, "I'm sorry you had to be witness to this." With Sookie's aid she straightens and gripping the ceramic sink tightly she rinses her mouth out.

"Why don't I get you some crackers?" Sookie offers, "to help settle your stomach."

"I won't be able to keep them down," Rory responds simply.

"You've got to try to eat something sweetie, it's just nerves…"

"I have a month of experience to base it off of," Rory sighs, she might as well fill Sookie in on her well kept secret.

"Rory what…" Before she can even get the sentence out realization dawns on Sookie's face, "you're pregnant?" When Rory nods Sookie shrieks and wraps her arms around Rory, "I'm so happy for you." But as quickly as Sookie's excitement came on she pulls away from Rory her face replaced with the sadness that had been there for a week. "Did…" Sookie trails, she'd spent the last week careful not to talk to Rory in to much depth about Lorelai's death. She knew the Gilmore girl traits well enough to know in times of pain they couldn't be pushed, that they'd talk about it in their own time but pushing it would only push them away.

Rory nods, "I told Mom the night before," Rory swallows hard, "before they left." Rory can't bare to mention the fact that in the duffel bag of carry-on items that had been returned to Rory by a police officer contained a list of baby names. Or that Lorelai had called everyday from Hawaii to check in on Rory and her new little grandson or granddaughter. Or that Lorelai's last words to Rory had been before she boarded the plane to fly back to Connecticut to tell her to make sure that she Rory knew that she would be there for her doctors appointment two days earlier. No, no one knew these details. These were things to painful to think about let along voice.

"I bet she was thrilled," Sookie states, her voice barely above a whisper.

Rory nods, "she was." Taking one final breath she states, "we should get out there."

"I'm here," Sookie states gently rubbing Rory's back before they part ways. "I know I'm not your mom," a tear slips down Sookie's cheek as she says this, "but I'm here."

"I know," Rory nods, "thanks." Carefully Rory weaves her way through the crowded house until she stops at her old bedroom door, now decorated with a mix of ballet and baseball posters. Gently she pushes open the door and finds a nine-year-old girl with dark brown hair lying face down on her bed. "Hey kid."

"Don't call me that!" The girl sits up immediately her voice raised and tears already streaming down her face.

"Ellie," Rory bites her lip as she faces her younger half sister. Eleanor Emily Danes, names after both of her grandmothers, was every bit a Gilmore from the same piercing blue eyes to her appetite with the exception of her athleticism that she could only get from the Danes side of the family.

"Don't," Ellie sobs, "don't call me that. That was Mom's word, don't call me that."

Rory moves to the bed, kneeling on it before she pulls Ellie close to her letting the younger girl cling to her as she sobs into her shoulder. They were all they had left of each other, Rory would be responsible for her sister from that moment on. But she couldn't let herself think about that yet. For right now she had to concentrate on the present, later she could cry about it…later she could think about how she was supposed to live her life without her constant in her life.

A.N. I know that there's still a lot of questions left after this chapter. How Luke and Lorelai died. Who Rory's married to…and more I'm sure. But there's more to come if you guys are interested…if not I figured this would be a good place to end a one-shot!


	2. Chapter 2

_**When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Two**_

_"On a day of burial there is no perspective - for space itself is annihilated. Your dead friend is still a fragmentary being. The day you bury him is a day of chores and crowds, of hands false or true to be shaken, of the immediate cares of mourning. The dead friend will not truly die until tomorrow, when silence is round you again. Then he will show himself complete, as he was - to tear himself away, as he was, from the substantial you. Only then will you cry because of him who is leaving and whom you can't detain._

Rory wakes to the sound of silence only three hours after she'd finally passed out, exhausted from hours of tears that had kept her company. She lay wrapped tightly in the soft sheets from her mother's bed, breathing in the scent that at the same time both comforted her and brought her to an entire new round of tears. Slowly she gets out of bed, it was only six and hours before she got up on any other given day but she couldn't stay in the bed any longer, she had things to do today. Things that needed to be taken care of. She had a sister to take care of now. Businesses to figure out. A life to figure out.

Slowly she moves out of the bed and wanders into the bathroom. She could remember the exact sequence of events when she'd first set foot in the remodeled bathroom. The banter that had always come so easily between she and her mother, even after months of separation. She waited breathlessly with both her mother and Luke in this bathroom when they found out that Lorelai was pregnant again, with Ellie. Moving out of the room she trails downstairs taking in the house that she had grown up in. So much of it hadn't changed, the monkey lamp that her grandmother had hated was still there but despite some of the constants things had changed as well.

Luke moving in had changed some things, one his flannel jackets was still hanging on the coat hanger completely undisturbed. And the kitchen had changed from a room that only held poptarts, coffee and extra shoes to an actual kitchen stocked full of food, although mostly now it contained casseroles that the town had brought over the day before. But Rory knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn't touch them, and Ellie...Ellie was Luke's little girl and Rory wasn't sure if she'd ever seen Ellie eat a meal that her father hadn't prepared.

Ellie, who had chosen to stay the night at Sookie's, for the 8th night in a row, instead of be forced to spend the night at her home. She'd sobbed at the thought of her first night alone in the house, without her parents just upstairs. But Rory had stayed the night alone. Why? She didn't know, maybe hoping that if she spent the night in her mother's bedroom she'd once again feel the connection to her mother that she'd had her entire life.

As tears once again slip down her cheek the doorbell rings and Rory forces herself into the composure that she has shown to the whole outside world. Slowly she makes her way back toward the door, touching Luke's jacket again as she passes and with a shaky breath she pulls open the door.

"Ace," Logan immediately wraps his arms around Rory, pulling her to him tightly, "I'm so sorry. I was out of the country. Unreachable. I would have been here sooner if I'd known."

"Logan," Rory's voice is hoarse, "h-how..."

"Lane called me," Logan states pulling away slightly to gaze into her face. "Or she called my secretary..I got the message yesterday morning and got on a plane as soon as possible. I'm so sorry I couldn't be here."

"Logan," Rory can't help but repeat his name, still locked in the shock of his presence in front of her. She'd gone days completely forgetting that Logan Huntzberger even existed, the very many who had, up until a month and a half ago, been her husband for years.

"Come in," Logan urges her as he leads her inside, "let me make you some coffee."

"No," Rory quickly shakes her head, vaguely aware that she had given up coffee as soon as she found out she was pregnant.

"Okay," Logan continues to lead her to the kitchen, "at least let me get you some water. You look like you're going to collapse." Rory nods faintly and allows herself to be lead, she does feel shaky on her feet and is appreciative of Logan's arm secured around her waist.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Logan asks as he sits opposite Rory at the table in the kitchen.

Rory pushes at the food on the plate in front of her, Logan had heated up one of the many casserole dishes in the fridge. That, like Rory, was the extent of his culinary skills and the six years they had spent married and living in New York City had consisted of a lot of take-out. Rory clears her throat preparing to give the speech that she'd had to repeat more times then she could count, "they'd spent the week in Hawaii and on their way back from the airport they..." Rory clears her throat, "We're, um, hit by a drunk driver. Mom and Luke were killed on impact and the driver of the other car died before they could get her to the hospital."

"Ellie wasn't with them?" Logan questions quickly, he had a sweet spot for his young sister-in-law.

Rory shakes her head, "they were on their second honeymoon."

Logan sighs and Rory knows him well enough to know that he's trying to keep his own emotions in check. "I wish I..."

Rory quickly cuts him off, not wanting to hear the wish knowing it will either contain the words 'knew what to say' or ''d be here'. Neither of which she wanted to hear. "So I'm moving back here. I don't want to take Ellie away from everything she's ever known. And thanks to technology I can do 98 of my work from here, I'll just have to go into the city once a week for meetings."

"Rory..." Logan begins but Rory jumps to her feet as her stomach does a familiar turn and it's an all to typical race to the bathroom. And once again as Rory is faced with heaving into the toilet she can't help but wonder how it's possible to have be sick on such little food. And for the second time in two days as morning sickness rears it's ugly head there is someone there behind her, to pull her hair away from her face and gently rub her back and Logan's actions are so familiar to Rory that they bring her to tears.

Logan slips out of the bathroom one Rory has straightened and flushed the toilet but when she as brushed her teeth she finds him one again the kitchen. Only now he looks pale and the expression on his face is unreadable, which Rory knows from experience is never a good sign. He searches her face for a minute before he finally asks, "why didn't you tell me?"

Rory sinks into the chair she'd vacated so quickly before, exhaustion catching up with her, she takes a sip of her water before opening her mouth. "I just found out. Three weeks ago."

"Three weeks ago is not just found out Rory," Logan states, his face flushing in anger.

"I wanted to wait Logan, until I knew..." Rory drops the sentence not allowing it to go any further. Not allowing them dredge up even more pain, she was in enough of it without pulling up the past.

"I..." Logan trails, "I have to go."

Rory nods in understanding, there were reasons their marriage hadn't worked; and both of their inabilities to stick around when things got hard had been one of the main causes. Once Rory hears the door close behind Logan she slowly makes her way upstairs, leaving the plateful of casserole on the table untouched. Walking past her mother's bedroom she gazes a the bed longingly, wanting nothing more then to just curl back up in bed and sleep away the rest of the day and the day after that. But she knows that's not practical. She has things to take care of today. She had things to figure out. And she couldn't accomplish anything by laying around because as much as she hated it life went on. Sure it had changed drastically, but it went on nonetheless.

Rory lets herself into the front of the diner and she can feel the town's residence eyes on her, she has since she'd stepped foot outside of the house to walk over. She was pretty sure that Babette must have called Miss Patty and alerted her that she was leaving the house because there were entirely to many people on the streets for seven in the morning. Thankfully no one approached her, Rory knew she couldn't handle anymore condolences or offers of cooking or any other kind of help. The residents of Stars Hollow were loving and helpful but Rory knew she handle them just now, so she'd made the walk with her eyes trained on the ground avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Once she's made it into the diner she takes a deep breath. Somehow she'd expected it to smell differently. But the scent of fries and coffee were still mixed in the air clinging to everything. And the tables all looked the same as they had from the first day that Rory had walked into the diner when she was just a kid. Luke's hadn't ever changed. Through everything Rory had been through in her life she'd always been able to count on the fact that Luke's would be exactly the same. Slowly she settles into the chair that had always been hers, at the table her mother had claimed over two decades before and lifting a menu she flips open the cover and carefully traces the L+L 4 evr that Lorelai had etched there. It was a game Luke and Lorelai were constantly playing, just as Lorelai would reach the last menu to scratch the words into Luke would order a whole new batch of menus. They would banter back and forth and the whole process would start over again.

Rory rests her forehead on the cool metal of the table as tears slide down her cheeks, she still wasn't sure how she was supposed to do this. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do with the diner, because even though it looked exactly the same it never was going to be the same again. Not without Luke and his backwards baseball cap behind the counter serving coffee barking out warnings about how many years the food they consumed would take off their lives.

Luke and Lorelai had revised their wills only a year ago and they'd filled her in on what was going into it. Control of both of their businesses and of Ellie would go to Rory; there was no question of that. Rory knew she didn't have to worry about the inn, Sookie and Michel would be able to run it on their own but the diner was another matter altogether. And even beyond the business side of things Rory couldn't imagine the diner without Luke behind the counter.

Footsteps over her head immediately causes Rory's heart to pound but before she can do anything to protect herself the steps hit top of the stairs. On instinct Rory grabs the closest thing to her and holds the bundle of silverware wrapped in a napkin up like a baseball bat.

"Jesus, Rory!" Jess looks as startled to see Rory as she is to see him.

"Jess!" Rory snaps dropping her arms to her side as the adrenaline in her veins slows down.

"Rory," Jess deflates, he looks tired, worn and too old for his 32-years.

Rory quickly crosses the distance between the two of them and before she can get a handle on her emotions she reaches up and smacks Jess hard across the face, "asshole."

**A.N. Thank you all for your reviews! I was more then a little stunned when I woke up the next morning to see my inbox flooded. It was encouraging and really spurred on this chapter. I've got the next chapter all planned out but I've got to get packing because my vacation officially ends tomorrow when I board the plane to go home . But I'll have the next update up as soon as I can get it out!**


	3. Chapter 3

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Three _**

"Suppressed grief suffocates, it rages within the breast, and is forced to multiply its strength."

A.N. Rogan? Lit? Rogan? Lit? So this is pretty much the circle that my brain is running. If you've read my other work you can deduce that it'll either be Rogan or Lit...but as for this one I'm not really sure. Originally Logan wasn't going to be in it (he was gonna be a made up character) but he squirmed his way in so I don't know who it'll be. In the coming chapter's I'll go over Rogan's past, it's deep and dark and makes Lit's ship look like fluffy bunnies. And for Primesetter31 watch out for Ellie in the next chapter...actually is Rory/Ellie centric so check it out...it should be up this weekend at some point! And there'll be some Rogan up soon too! You guys should continue to weigh in on the Rogan/Lit debate...if you make a good enough appeal maybe it'll help me make up my mind between the two!

* * *

"Get the hell out," Rory spits taking a step away from Jess, her hand stinging from the force she'd used to smack him across the face.

"Rory? What the fuck?" Jess stares stunned at her, he'd been surprised to see her there in the first place and the last thing he expected from Rory was a smack across the face. He knew he'd see her eventually, in fact he'd intended to head over to the house later to see how she was doing; he'd expected tears, an emotional mess but he hadn't imagined the rage that was spread like fire across her face.

"What the hell are you doing here Jess?" Rory demands, with her hands on her hips and her lips forming a thin white line Jess can see an angry school teacher but he's more then well aware not to point this out.

"I came back to pay my respects," he knows what she means by the question. What she wants to know is why he wasn't at the funeral service the day before, or why he hadn't showed up in the days since the accident.

He's right about that and next question draws her close to him again, "well you're a little late." She pushes on his shoulders and Jess is once again surprised by Rory Gilmore, but this time it's her strength that catches him off guard and he stumbles backward but quickly catches himself on the counter.

"I couldn't come yesterday, Rory," Jess sighs, his expression pained but it doesn't matter because Rory refuses to look at him.

"You were what, out of the country and couldn't get back until now?" Rory spits out, her eyes trained on the no cell phone sign that hung on the wall behind Jess.

"No," Jess grabs Rory, probably a little more roughly then he should have and forces her to look at him. "Because I couldn't stand to come back and listen to everyone talk about them like they were dead..."

"But they are dead, Jess!" Rory's tone is high and squeaky like she's trying to hold back tears, but the instant the words are out of her mouth she goes sheet white once again backs away from Jess.

"Rory..." Jess takes a few steps toward her, trying to wrap his arms around her but she resists almost immediately.

"Don't, don't touch me Jess!" Rory shoves him away again, "you can't just hug me and make this go away. This is the real world and they're gone and they're not coming back and you just have to...have to..."

Jess pull Rory to him this time, and he can't help but see some clip from an afternoon special as she pushes against him swearing at yelling at him in a hysterical tone. He's not sure when the change happens or how long it takes to get there, but eventually Rory has begun to sob clinging tightly to Jess' t-shirt. It takes everything Jess has to hold her up, but even that doesn't last very long because the more he lets himself think about the situation and what has brought the two of them together the harder it is to resist his own tears. The tears that he swore he wasn't going to let anyone in Stars Hollow see. He was supposed to play it cool, not let them see the grief that had settled into his chest.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," Rory stares up at Jess, her normally brilliant blue eyes have been dulled to a gray and her cheeks are washed in tears.

"I know, Rory," Jess murmurs, because he did know. Luke and Lorelai had waited so long to figure out that they were in love with each other, and the romantic side of Jess said that they should have grown old together and died peacefully in their sleep...together. Not ten years after they married, leaving behind a little young daughter and a grown-up one who had to pick up the pieces. No, this sure as hell wasn't how it was supposed to go.

"What do you know?" Rory asks, the anger is out of her voice and just replaced with pain but he knows that she really is hurt that he hadn't been at the funereal and service yesterday.

"Just because I didn't come yesterday doesn't mean that I loved them any less then you did," Jess responds, attempting to keep his voice even as her furiously swipes at his own wet cheeks.

"She was my mom! It's not the same." Rory's breathes in shaky breaths, but her tears have stopped.

"You know that's not true," Jess had never had a good grip on his emotions and his voice rises at the accusation, "that's like saying that you loved Luke any less then your father."

"I don't want to do this Jess," Rory states as tears begin to slide down her cheeks again, "I don't want to imagine my life without Mom or Luke. I don't want to. I don't want to have to live in this town anymore but I have too. I can't imagine walking by this place every day but not seeing Luke through the windows. Or going into the video store and renting a movie that's not for a movie night with mom. How am I supposed to drink coffee again without thinking that my mom will never have another cup and being reminded of all the coffee that Luke served me. They're both ingrained in every part of my life, in everything I've become I don't know how to _be_ without them." With her words Rory buries her face once again in Jess neck, she makes no audible sounds of crying but her shoulders shake visibly and if Jess had been looking up at that exact moment he would have seen that several members of the town watch the two mournfully through the large window.

* * *

It's dark when Rory slips out the backdoor of the diner, she didn't know when she'd fallen asleep but she was sure it was at some point in the middle of the diner sobbing into Jess' shoulder. So when she's woken in Luke's old apartment with Jess sound asleep next to her she'd be unfamiliar with her surroundings in the growing dark. Carefully she'd slipped out from under Jess' arm wrapped lightly around her and hurried out of the apartment, to confused to even think about waking him up to say good-bye.

As soon as she's in the back alleyway her cell phone rings causing her heart to pound, fumbling to flip it open she recognizes the number as Sookie's. "Hello?"

"Oh, Rory did I wake you?" Sookie's tone is immediately apologetic.

"No, no," Rory assures quickly, attempting to cover her just woke-up tone. "What's up?"

"I was calling to see if you'd like to come to dinner," Sookie responds, "I'm sure Ellie would like to see you."

Ellie. 'Damn it.' Had she really forgotten about her little sister. "Of course, but you don't have to cook for me Sookie, we've got plenty of casseroles, I can just swing by and pick up Ellie..."

"You're not going to touch those casserole's Rory," Sookie states, "I'm making hamburgers. We'll eat whenever you get here."

"I'm on my way over now," Rory responds as she carefully picks her way through the trash filled alley.

"Okay sweetie, we're in no rush though," Sookie assures before they both hang up. Once

Rory has snapped her cell phone shut and shoves it back in her purse she pulls out her compact, she needed to pull herself together before emerging onto the street. Using the last little bit of dusk she stares at her reflection, she was pale and her eyes were slightly red but for the most part the couple hours she'd spent asleep upstairs had repaired any signs that she had been crying. Running a hand through her hair she realizes she doesn't have a scrunchie so she's going to have to deal with that just woke up look, honestly it didn't really matter what Rory looked like. But focusing on small things was keeping her from seeing the big picture; the big picture that had reduced her to tears in her ex-boyfriend's arms.

Once she's continued on her way she reaches Sookie's and knocks lightly on the door, moments later Davey pulls the door open. At 13 he was tall, a height that both Sookie and Jackson attributed to Jackson's father, "hi Rory," Davey doesn't meet Rory's gaze as he moves away from the door to allow her to pass through.

"Hey Davey," Rory returns the greeting, slightly thrown off by her Godson's reaction. He's spent his young years throwing himself at Rory, proposing marriage and glaring at Logan for getting to her first. But as he'd approached his pre-teens and teens he'd played it less childlike and more friendly and talkative, but this reaction was beyond foreign to Rory.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Davey spits out quickly and realization dawns suddenly on Rory.

Gently Rory rubs Davey's arm as she passes him, "thanks, Davey."

"Rory is that you?" Sookie appears in the doorway leading to the kitchen, "of good. You're here." Sookie hurries to Rory's side and immediately grabs her arm, a wooden spoon still clutched in one of her hands. "Can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

"Sure," Rory nods and allows Sookie to lead her outside, "is everything okay with Ellie?"

"Of course...well I mean she's devastated, of course she is. But she's been fine." Sookie states, "but I actually wanted to talk to you about well...you know...we didn't really get to talk after the bathroom yesterday..."

"The baby?" Rory questions with a sigh, more then anything she wished that Sookie hadn't caught on to her pregnancy.

"Right, the baby," Sookie nods. "I know I'm not your mom sweetie, and I know your life is in shambles but..."

"Sookie please," for the first time in her entire memory Rory has raised her tone at Sookie as she pulls her arm out of Sookie's grasp. "I can handle everything, okay? I've got it all taken care of." Rory sighs as Sookie's pain and hurt register on her face, "I'm sorry."

"No," Sookie shakes her head, "it's my fault, I shouldn't have pushed."

"There's just to much for me to take in right now," Rory bites her lip and Sookie nods, both are obviously ready to drop the subject and Sookie follows Rory back into the house to put the finish touches on dinner.


	4. Chapter 4

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Four _**

"You can never go home again."

A.N. The first scene of this chapter came out a little to much like the scene between Dawn and Buffy in the 5th season episode of Buffy then I intended. And I almost scrapped the whole scene and started over again, but the thing is I think the way Rory is grieving is exactly the way she would grieve in real life. She would hide behind the things that needed to be done and someone younger and/or more emotional (like Ellie) would find that hard to understand...but now that I've given away the entire first scene..read on! Also I know this is a shorter chapter but the next chapter is going to develop Rogan's marriage a lot more, then there'll be more Ellie and then Jess finally comes back into the picture!

* * *

"Ellie," Rory sighs and stares at her sister from across Sookie's kitchen, where Rory had pulled the doors shut after Ellie entered so she could priavetly convince her sister to come back to the house with her.

At almost nine Ellie was small for her age, a result of being born a month and a half premature, but Rory can't help but notice that since the accident she's seemed so much smaller than ever before. "I'm not coming with you," Ellie's words are soft and she refuses to meet Rory's gaze.

"Ellie you have to come back to the house with me, I know it's hard and it sucks but you can't live with Sookie forever. It's your home." The word sounds hollow to Rory's ears. _Home_. Could it still be a home without her mother there?

"No," Ellie's voice raises at this statement and her eyes lock onto Rory's, "no. I won't do it."

"Ellie, you can't..." Rory attempts to get a handle on her emotions, "you can't stay with Sookie forever."

"I'm not going back there!" Ellie shouts, "no. I hate it there. And I hate you for making me go there. You act like everything is job you have to cross of your list."

"Ellie, no," Rory's eyes shimmer with tears and she takes a step toward her sister, "I'm trying to take care of things. To take care of you..."

"I hate you," Ellie spits out, "I hate you. I hate you! I hate you!" Sookie appears through the doorway as Ellie bursts into tears, seeking comfort in Sookie's embrace.

"Maybe you should just let her stay here for the night," Sookie gently suggests.

"Fine," Rory shrugs before turning, "I'll stop by tomorrow."

Sookie gently strokes Ellie's dark hair as she nods, "okay. Ellie and I will sit down and have a talk."

Rory makes it outside of the house before she lets the tears slip down her cheeks. Part of her was relieved that Ellie was coming home, honestly Rory had no idea how she was supposed to deal with her little sister. Rory would never say she'd been the best big sister, she'd been the best she could be but with a life that kept her in New York and the age gap they weren't as close as they could possibly be. Lorelai, as she had with Rory, had a special relationship with Ellie but the same could be said for both Luke and Ellie as well. At eight she wasn't old enough to be influenced that her parents weren't cool. And to Ellie, Lorelai and Luke were her heros, her entire world.

Honestly Rory can't blame Ellie for not wanting to go home. The silence of the house was suffocating and deep down she knew she was pushing the subject to have Ellie come home so that she didn't need to stay there alone another night. But she'd seen the pain written across her sister's face at the suggestion and Rory knew she was being childish for attempting to make her _child_ sister act like a grown up. Honestly, she didn't blame Ellie for hating her. Right now she hated herself too.

Wrapping her arms around her stomach she settles for wandering around the town aimlessly, the air is hot and humid but she hardly notices. She has no purpose in her wandering, really, she knew that if she wanted to she could stop by Lane's house. Lane would make room for her to stay the night. So would just about anyone else I the town. Hell Jess would probably let her stay the night in the diner. But she couldn't go there. Couldn't face the diner. Couldn't face Jess. But despite that her walk takes her right by the diner anyway, with a sigh Rory crosses the street and moves toward the gazebo.

She settles on the gazebo, fitting herself into one of the corners and pulling her knees to her chest she rests her chin there. With her arms wrapped firmly around her jean glad legs she lets her mind wander back to a day that felt like a million years ago. In reality it wasn't a million, just ten years and ten days. She could almost imagine her mother in the simple pale, pale, pink dress she'd chosen to wear for the almost impromptu wedding. She and Luke had just decided they were tired of letting life get in the way of their wedding, so Lorelai had picked up the phone one day. Called Sookie and told her that she and Luke would be getting married the next morning. And they had. In a beautiful ceremony that all of Stars Hollow had worked hard to create.

"Hey," Logan's quiet appearance at her side hadn't gone unnoticed so his greeting hardly causes a reaction from Rory for about thirty seconds.

"I thought you went back to New York."

"I did," Logan responds with a shrug. "I remember when Luke and Lorelai got married here, it was the day you decided to give me a second chance."

"Yeah," Rory whispers, "it was."

The couple, who were still legally married though they hadn't been living together for two months, sit in silence lost in their own thoughts. Both of the past. Logan's mind wanders to the time when he'd walked just across the street to talk to Luke and Lorelai about marrying Rory. And Rory could still almost see Luke and Lorelai standing before her exchanging their vows that confessed they'd been in love with each other for longer then they knew. "Rory," Logan's voice is heavy with emotions. "I know you have a lot going on, but we have to talk about the fact that you're pregnant."

"The baby is yours, if that's what you're wondering," Rory's voice is dry, emotionless.

"Of course that's not what I'm asking," Logan responds and Rory's tone doesn't go by him unnoticed. "You're pregnant again..." Logan trails, summoning the courage it's going to take to ask what he's about to. "I want you to move back to New York, we can try it over again."

"Logan, there are reasons, reasons why we are going through a divorce in the first place. They aren't going away..." Rory stops suddenly before dropping both her feet to the ground and jumping to her feet. "I want you to take me to New York." Her voice is almost manic, overexcited and agitated.

"Didn't I just..." Logan is thrown by Rory's sudden change in conversational direction and tone.

"I want to visit my babies," Rory states quickly.

Logan shakes his head slowly, "I don't know if that's such a good idea right now Rory. It's late. To drive to New York now...you need your rest."

Rory shakes her head this time, "Logan please. Take me to see them," her eyes fill with tears, "I need to see them. Please." Rory's expression is pleading and filled with tears, a heartbreaking look that Logan just can't resist.

"Please," Logan has to try one last time, "can we please go in the morning? Let you get some sleep?"

"No," Rory shakes her head the manic sounds in her voice is gone, but in it's stead is a broken voice. A voice that tells Logan that maybe if picking up and driving to New York at ten o'clock at night from Connecticut might not be the best idea Rory's ever had, but in some way it something she needs to do.

"Okay, we'll go." Logan gets to his feet and follows as Rory leads her way to Logan's car that's parked along side the road. He's well aware that this trip is about Rory, and not so much about her need to be in New York but to embrace something that isn't the pain of losing her mother. This has nothing to do with him. This has nothing to do with their "babies" that Rory so desperately wants to see. It's about Rory and Lorelai. In what way Logan doesn't know, but he never claimed to understand the strong bond between mother and daughter. But right now what he does understand is that this is a part of Rory's grieving process and to stand strong beside her like she needs him to drive to New York.


	5. Chapter 5

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Five _**

"The death of a child is the single most traumatic event in medicine. To lose a child is to lose a piece of yourself."

A.N. So two updates in two days. Woohoo. Although, well I'm slightly sad because my reviews have gone from 27 for the first chapter to like ten for this last chapter, I live for reviews and they keep me posting so keep reviewing if it's just to say good chapter (or, you know, that sucked...whichever you feel inclined to post). Thanks to Selina who sent me the longest review I've ever received, she made a great case for a Lit story...so you Rogan fans better get to convincing : As for leaving you guys confused in the last chapter, well that was totally intentional. How else am I supposed to keep you guys reading?

"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Logan questions from the drivers side of his expensively upholster BMW.

Rory stares back at him in the automatic light hanging above the car in the garage of their home in New York. Logan had figured that she'd fall asleep on the drive, her previous pregnancies had left her constantly exhausted, but Rory had remained silent, but away, with her eyes directed at the scenery outside the car. In the dim light Logan notices that her face is paler then it was before they left and her expression is pinched as if in some sort of emotionally caused physical pain, and despite the faraway look in her eyes she manages a nod.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Logan asks, although he knows she's going to say that this is something she wants to do alone.

Rory swallows hard, but finally she nods, she'd done everything alone in the last couple of days, but this she didn't think she could do alone. Not this time. Logan nod and mirrors Rory's actions as she slips out of the car, he's surprised though. He'd seen Rory grieve enough times to know her grieving process, enough to know that she did it alone. Sometimes she'd let Lorelai in, but never anyone else. Lorelai had been Rory's rock and Logan honestly didn't know what Rory was going to do without her mother for the rest of her life.

Silently they make their way across their large property, the house and property had been a wedding gift from Mitchum and Shira to assure that they wouldn't be cut off from any future heir. Rory had immediately wanted to reject the offer, until she'd seen and immediately fallen in love with the property and then she'd accepted it strings and all. Once they reach the gated garden both Logan and Rory let out deep breaths; Rory because she'd realized that she'd been holding her breath on the walk over and Logan because he wasn't sure what to expect on the other side of the gate.

The garden was Rory's place to grieve and Logan had respected that by staying away from it, he'd never seen past the tall rosebushes that lined all four sides of the fence and now that he was about to he wasn't sure he was ready for it. Rory pulls the gate slowly open and steps into the square that couldn't be more than five square feet open on the inside. Along the fence opposing the gate stood three statues that can be seen by moonlight. The statues are no more then three feet tall, including the platforms at the bottom of each, and all three have angels carved into them that evokes sorrow that hits Logan hard in the stomach.

Rory kneels down in front of the middle statue, an angel cradling a baby close to her chest and the inscription on at the bottom reads _Lorelai Elizabeth Huntzberger March 11th 2011_. Rory remains in front of the first for several long minutes tracing each letter of the words carefully, while Logan remains behind her unable to move and hardly able to breathe. After a long time Rory moves to her right, where there's a statue of a boy angel with his face turned heavenward. Logan doesn't need to read the inscription to know that it reads _Nicholas Edward Huntzberger April 21st 2015_, nor does he need to read the inscription on the third, another girl angel with her head bowed in prayer, to know it reads _Katherine Rose Huntzberger January 3rd 2016._ He doesn't need to read it because the names and dates are etched into his heart and no matter how much times passes they'll never fade.

Rory's gasps for air pulled Logan out of his own pain and he's immediately on his knees beside her, carefully he wraps his arm around her shoulder, assuming she'll just shrug him off. Instead, though, she turns into him and cries almost silently into him, "this was a mistake. Coming here. What was this supposed to do Logan?" Rory clings to him as she sobs through her words. "I'm scared Logan, I'm so, so scared."

After slipping a hand under her knees Logan carefully moves to his feet, he has no words to console her with. Words never cure grief, Logan knew, so instead he remains silent as she cries, carrying her toward the house. By the time he reaches the bedroom she's silently cried herself to sleep, and he's not at all surprised he's sure she probably hasn't slept well in days so he gently settles her on the bed. After removing her shoes and covering her with the heavy quilt at the end of the bed he moves to leave the room but is stopped by her grabbing his hand, "please don't leave."

"Rory," Logan sits on the bed as Rory sits up to face him.

"I want you to stay," Rory whispers as both her hands light cup his face. They linger there for a moment before she leans closer to him and within short seconds their lips meet in a hungry kiss. Rory's arms wrap around Logan's neck and his settle at her sides as she leans back into the pillows. The passion that makes up their kisses urges to two on quickly.

Logan's hands trail over the thin material of her tank top the under and over her silky smooth stomach, an action that comes so natural and yet feels like it hasn't been performed in a million years. Rory's own hands travel down and across his shoulders before resting lightly on his chest, but finally continue to move downward and being their task of unbuckling Logan's jeans.

"Rory," Logan breaks the kiss and pulls away quickly, "we shouldn't do this."

"Logan, I want this," Rory murmurs before reaching for him again.

Logan gently captures her hands in his, "you don't really want this. You're looking for something that's going to make you hurt just a little bit less. But this, Rory, will only hurt more in the long run." Rory doesn't respond but she sinks backward and dropping her hands Logan informs her, "I'll be in the guest room if you need anything." Gently he kisses her forehead before leaving Rory alone.

Logan was right, of course. On all accounts. Kissing Logan had been stupid, but she did want anything to take her mind off of the gut wrenching grief that had become a constant in her life. But he was also right that if things had gone to far it would only confuse their already confusing situation. Two months ago they had let things go to far and now she was pregnant, confusing enough. It had been break-up sex. No strings. Just the way their relationship had started years and years ago but strings had reattached themselves and connected the two once again.

The morning after Rory had felt a semblance of closure to their mutual decision to divorce. It had been decided that Logan would keep the house, it had been a gift from his parents after all and she didn't want to feel tied to Mitchum and Shira now that she didn't have to be. Logan had agreed that it sounded fair but assured her that she would be allowed to visit her garden whenever she wanted too. And after a civilized breakfast Rory had taken a suitcase and gone to stay in Stars Hollow with Lorelai for a week before renting an apartment in the New York City, within walking distance of work. Logan on the other hand had taken off for Europe on business and then a much needed vacation.

That had been two months ago and yet it could be two years ago. Now here she was again, back in the same huge house, in the same huge bed that she'd slept in for most of the past six years. The room looked exactly the same with the exception that her bedside table was missing the stack of book that used to reside there and her robe wasn't hanging next to Logan's on the back of the door and the bed now smelled only of Logan. But despite those things the room still looked the same, still felt the same. It took her back to a time of Saturday morning breakfast in bed followed by the rest of the day in each other's arms. Sometimes making love and sometimes just being together content with the quiet.

Slowly things had started to unravel faster then they could put them back together and the last bit of possibly endurable strain had come just the day after their sixth anniversary. It had just been a waiting game from there. They'd started avoiding one another in the hall. After years of firmly mandating that they eat breakfast together whenever they were both in town they both gave up on it. Spending more and more time working until one day at the end of February when they sat down and decided that there was no hope of making it work anymore.

Rory missed Logan. That was to be expected though, you don't just go from being married to a person to not in such a short time. But her feelings for him beyond that were jumbled. Rory had talked it over with Lorelai the night before she and Luke left for Hawaii. Lorelai's advice had been to give it time, if she was still having doubts when they when it came time to sign the divorce papers then maybe they should reconsider. But that advice had been followed by the statement that of course she hadn't ever been divorced so she didn't really know about these things...but what she did know was that Logan needed to know about the baby.

Rory tears at the thought of the conversation, it was the last time she'd ever be able to go to her mother for advice. The last time she'd curl up on the couch with junk food scattered around, pause a movie and ask her advice on something that they both knew had been eating away at her through the entire first half of the movie. Rory would stew, thinking of the best way to phrase a potentially awkward question or statement ("Mom, I'm pregnant and I'm not sure if I am still in love with Logan or not" - would be the perfect example) and Lorelai would wait patiently munching on whatever was on hand ready to dispense advice.

How was she supposed to do this? She'd never made a single big decision in her life without talking it over with her mother first. Maybe going back to Logan would be the smart thing to do. He'd take care of her, she knew he would and right now she desperately needed to be taken care of. Maybe it was selfish, but right now she was exhausted and her mind wasn't working correctly and before she can even think of what she is going to say tomorrow she slips into a deep dreamless sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Six _**

"Everyone has a 'best-friend' during each stage of their life - only a precious few have the same one."

A.N. Okay, I don't even have the words to describe how thankful I am for the reviews you guys have been sending me. I've never had such a great set of reviewers any more and I think my updating reflects that so I guess I really depend on reviews even more then I thought! So I know you guys all want to see Ellie, and I promise pretty soon it'll be chock full of Ellie and Jess. As for the Rogan/Lit debate you guys are making great cases and every time I read a different review I change my mind, it's like ping pong in my head but in the end I (and Rory) will have to choose one and I hope you guys will be happy with whoever is chosen! Also applause to those of you who picked up on the baby thing, it was confusingly written, I know so if you figure it out yay! I also know that you guys want to know what caused the death of Rory's children and I promise you'll find out because it's absolutely key to the story and there'll be hints about it along the way but it might be a couple chapters before it actually comes out. Anyway I suppose this authors note is quite long enough and you just want to read the story so I'm done, I promise!

* * *

Rory woke up the next morning with a headache that was beginning to become as familiar as the morning sickness that eventually kicked in. One that came from falling asleep after crying to much right before bed, her eyes are blurry and she opts for closing them for a little longer against the bright light streaming through a crack in the curtains. But curiosity as to how long she's actually managed to sleep for one period of time eventually causes her to open her eyes again.

Rolling over on the huge California king size bed Rory first spots the white piece of paper covering the alarm clock. Picking it up Rory forces herself to focus on Logan's handwriting written across his office stationary:

Rory,

I figured it would be less confusing for you if I wasn't here when you woke up. I know you're hurting and confused and I don't want to be the cause of anymore pain. Everything I said last night at the gazebo was true, I would like to try again but I don't want you to make an decisions now. I know you have a lot of things in your life to figure out, and I want you to be sure of whatever decision you make about us - not make one as a result of your grieving.

-Logan

All of a sudden Rory remembers her thoughts before falling asleep the night before and she feels like an idiot for even thinking them. Logan was a good guy and he would take care of her if she asked him too. But the problems that had been in their marriage were still their. Their inability to be together when things got hard. The lack of communication. It hadn't changed. The night before had been proof enough of that. No, for now a reconciliation with Logan wasn't right. Because Rory had the feeling that in a couple of months they would return to being as unhappy as they had been before they'd made the decision to separate.

Rory's eyes move to the clock again and is shocked to find that it's 11:30, much later then she expected and on the second glance she notices the box of saltine crackers that she had to assume Logan had left with the note. She smiles at the memory that the crackers brought on, for all four of her pregnancies Rory had dealt with severe morning sickness and seeing Rory so sick had freaked Logan out to no end. So he'd done lots of research and it had been him to discover that saltine crackers before she even got up in the morning eased the end result...leaving her only nauseous for the morning instead of with her face bent over a toilet bowl.

After nearly twenty minutes of lying in bed Rory swings her legs over the edge of the bed and hops down off of the tall bed. Slowly Rory makes her way to the bathroom that connects to the bedroom, digging through drawers she finds what she's looking for, her travel toothbrush. Glancing in the mirror while she brushes her teeth Rory takes in her appearance, she still looks pale and the nausea that's started is probably to blame for that, and there are dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep in the last week. With a start Rory can't help but think that she looks more like _she's_ dying rather then grieving for the dead.

After Rory rinses her mouth out she takes a step further away taking in her full appearance in the mirror and she realizes that it's the first time that she's actually looked in the mirror for days. She could remember her previous pregnancies she's spent so much time in front of the mirror tracking how her body changed day by day but it's only just now that she realizes that her boobs are already growing. They had always been the first indicator to the rest of the world that she was pregnant followed quickly by the bump that developed early.

Lifting her tank top Rory stares at her stomach in the mirror, gently placing her free hand on her stomach she realizes that if anything has changed about her stomach it's the fact that she's lost weight. It hits her with a rush that she's been so caught up in grieving that she's been putting her baby at risk and that revelation alone knocks the wind out of her. Rory freezes, her hand still on her stomach staring at herself hard as tears slip out of the corner of her eyes. She knew she needed to pull her life together, for herself, for her baby, for Ellie but Rory honestly didn't know how to go about doing that. There were two people depending on her to take care of the, because they couldn't take care of themselves, and so far Rory was failing miserable.

A throat being cleared causes Rory's to jump and quickly drop her hands and her shirt, her eyes meeting Lane's in the mirror, "Lane, what are you doing here?" Rory flies around to face her friend.

"Logan called me to let someone know where you were," Lane informs, "he said you could borrow his car to drive back to Stars Hollow but I thought maybe we'd make a day trip of it. Mitch's sister is watching the kids for me she promised them that she would take them to the pool..."

"You drove two hours to come pick me up?" Rory asks staring shocked at her friend, Lane had gotten married almost nine years before and had changed drastically. She was still fun, music loving Lane but she'd gotten married and became a mom and the role fit her nicely. Which was good, because nine years later she was the mother of two set of twins.

"What are best friends for?" Lane asks offering a small smile, her eyes are locked intently on Rory's and Rory is sure that her best friend is trying to figure out what was going on.

Rory steps forward and hugs Lane briefly, wiping at her tears as she pulls away, "thanks for coming. I'm ready whenever."

Lane nods, "why don't we head out now, we can grab something in the car to go with us."

Rory nods, "let me grab clothes, alright?"

"You've still got stuff here?" Lane seems surprised by this announcement.

Rory nods, "in my closet, I was actually planning on coming over at some point soon to pull my summer stuff out. Guess now is as good a time as any." Rory walks out of the bathroom with Lane right behind her, and as Rory disappears into the closet on the other side of the bedroom Lane settles on the edge of the bed.

Rory is just tying the belt to a pale blue belted sundress when Lane calls out, "Rory..." she pauses and quickly asks, "are you pregnant?"

Rory appears through the doorway of the closet, hands folded across her stomach, "is it that obvious?"

Lane grins, "only when you stand in front of the mirror with your shirt up staring at your stomach."

Rory blushes, "I've lost weight this last week, that's not good for the baby...that's what you walked in on." Slipping on the usually tighter fitting dress had proved that she had definitely dropped a fairly significant weight in a week.

"We'll stop and get something to eat," Lane's still grinning when she hops off the bed to stand in front of Rory. "I suppose this is a good time to tell you as well," Lane pulls her looser shirt taunt against her stomach revealing a definite bump there.

Rory's jaw drops and her eyes go wide, "you're pregnant too?"

Lane nods, "five months, it was totally unexpected but Mitch and I are excited...and it's not twins again, we know for sure this time. Which I've got to say is a relief, I don't know if I could handle three sets of twins..."

"Five months?" Rory asks, "why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Lane's expression falls, "I didn't know how you would feel about it...after everything that's happened. I was gonna wait until some more time had passed, but then...everything else happened..."

"Lane," Rory eases herself onto the bed slowly, her best friend's distance for the last couple of months making a lot more sense. "Is that why you stopped bringing the kids up to see me? Because you were protecting me?"

Lane shrugs, "yeah, I guess."

"I would have been happy for you," Rory promises, "I can't believe you think I wouldn't be."

"I could see the way you looked at the kids, it was so sad and I couldn't stand to see you like that. So yeah, that's why I didn't bring the kids up with me when I've come up to see you..."

Rory sighs, "you didn't have to do that, Lane. But I understand why you did. I haven't been the best friend, or person period, to be around for the last couple months."

"No one blames you Rory," Lane offers.

"Maybe not," Rory shakes her head, "but I need to pull my life back together."

"Nobody expects you to have all the answers right now Rory. Your allowed to me a mess. You're allowed to cry. You're allowed to lock yourself in the house and refuse to see anyone." Lane takes a deep breath, "but you're also allowed to smile. To me excited about the fact that you're going to have a baby. And I'll be here for whatever you need, if you want to talk, cry, watch a movie, throw a party...or if you just want me drive you home and leave you alone for a couple days I can do that too."

Rory offers Lane a week smile, "thank you."

Lane shrugs before wrapping an arm around Rory's shoulders, "what are best friends for?" Pulling Rory to a standing position Lane states, "now lets go get food, we're to pregnant woman...I say we splurge on a fudge sundae."


	7. Chapter 7

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Seven _**

"You can map your life through your favorite movies, an no people's maps will be the same."

A.N. Once again thank you all for your reviews, they keep me entertained that's for sure, especially regarding the Lit/Rogan debate...and while we are on the topic I want to get this out there. Don't assume that whatever happens now, for example if Rory gets close to one or the other, that that's how the story is going to end. We still have a ways to go so don't go jumping to conclusions...if it starts out Lit it may very well end a Rogan or it could remain a Lit...so continue to make your cases cause I'm still debating with myself and review cause I love them! And I know you guys still have questions about the death of Rory's children, those are coming soon. And I think you guys will have another question at the end of this chapter but I promise they'll all be answered in their time. And here's a spoiler for the next chapter: it's Ellie centric and she's about to make her sister's life even harder then it is...

Once they reached Stars Hollow Rory informed Lane that she would rather go home, but had also promised that she'd stop by at some point in the coming week to visit. The drive from New York to Stars Hollow with her best friend had left Rory more energized then she'd felt in at least a week. When Lane pulls into the driveway both are shocked to see Jess sitting on the front porch and glancing up from a book to watch them pull in.

"So he really is back in town, emerged from the diner and everything," Lane comments, Rory had filled her in on her encounter with Jess. "You good?"

Rory nods, "no matter how embarrassed I am, I can face Jess. He's not so scary." She gives Lane a final smile to express her thanks before emerging from the car. "How long, exactly, have you been waiting on my porch?" Rory asks, as she approaches Jess closes his book and stands from his position on the top step.

"Started re-reading Catcher in the Rye and I'm 10 pages from the end," Jess responds holding his book up as an illustration.

"That long huh?" Rory asks lifting an eyebrow, "don't you have anything better to do?"

Jess shrugs, "I wanted to see how you were doing. You disappeared last night."

"Yeah," Rory responds as she unlocks the front door to let them both through. "I had dinner at Sookie's."

"I thought maybe you'd stayed there last night," Jess nods.

"I actually stayed the night in New York," Rory responds but instantly isn't sure why she'd offered up so much information.

"Oh," Jess nods, "Logan didn't bring you back."

"No," Rory shakes her head, "we're getting a divorce." Rory stops immensely aware how out there that comment must sound to Jess. "I mean...I didn't know if you knew." Great, now she just sounded like an idiot.

"Luke mentioned it," Jess responds and the two fall silent at the mention of him. Both spend nearly two minutes shifting uncomfortably before Jess clears his throat, "I was wondering if we could...uh...talk...about what you were planning on doing with the diner."

"Oh," Rory swallows, "sure. We can talk in the kitchen." She quickly clears the table of the casserole that Logan had heated up for her the other morning. When had that been? With a start Rory realizes that had only been less then 48 hours ago. Rory settles at the table and Jess follows suit, "so, what about the diner?" Rory asks clasping her fingers tightly in front of her.

"I know you have control of the diner," Jess begins, "I was wondering if you'd given any thought as to what you're going to do with it?"

Rory shrugs, "I really don't know, I can't sell it because it was Luke's...but I can't run it either."

"I could run it," Jess states quickly, as if afraid that he'll lose the nerve to ask her.

"You?" Rory questions, "but...I mean, you hated working in the diner in high school."

"Not as much as I made it seem," Jess seems more relaxed now that he's gotten the question out. "But the way I see it, you can't sell it or hire someone else to run it because if you did they'd be sure to screw it up. You know me nice to the customers or something."

"You want to run it?" Rory asks again, "you're sure?"

Jess nods, "I'm positive. It's not like I _have_ to write in New York. Books can be written just as easily here as there. Hell, my publishing company isn't even in New York."

"Jess..."

"Listen, Rory if you don't like the idea just say that. It's just that...an idea."

"No," Rory shakes her head, "I do love the idea. I just don't want you to feel like you have to do this."

"So it's a deal then?" Jess asks not confirming or denying Rory's that he feels obligated to do this.

"Yeah, I guess we do."

"So," Jess asks, "I've got to ask the trite question, how are you doing?"

"Better," Rory responds, "I'm not saying that everything is sunshine and daisies. Far from it actually. But for the first time in a week I don't feel like shriveling up and dying. So I figure that's a step in the right direction."

"I would assume so," Jess nods.

"How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know."

Rory nods, she did know, "El's going to be glad to have you nearby all the time now."

Jess smiles, he and Ellie had always been close, "how's she doing?"

"I wouldn't know really, she's staying at Sookie's, she refuses to come back here with me and she says that she hates me."

"She doesn't really."

"No, I know."

"She's just upset."

"Rightfully so."

"Still hurts to hear the words, I'm sure."

"Yeah," Rory nods, "she's the only family I have right now." Rory sighs resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"Well, you know if you want to get technically we're cousins, if that helps and I don't hate you," Jess offers.

Rory wrinkles her nose, "that offer's absolutely no comfort. Having sex with your cousin, step or otherwise, is way to incest-y for my taste."

"Hey we weren't related then," Jess points out quickly, "incest wasn't involved and I don't think..not that it is anyway because if I remember correctly we were dating long before Luke and Lorelai got together."

"Sure," Rory smirks, "and the whole sex thing was a full 24 hours before they got married...officially making us cousins. So, you know, we're cool." Rory bites her lip before stating, "I never got to apologize for what happened the next day..."

"You don't have to apologize Rory," Jess shakes his head, "you and I have never had good time. Hell, I wouldn't have expected us to have had perfect timing then either."

"I'm still sorry," Rory responds.

"I'm not, so you shouldn't be either." Jess allows the words to sink in before he stands up, "I should go."

Rory stands as well and suddenly at the thought of being alone like she'd told Lane she wanted to be Rory changes her mind, "you could stay. I mean, you don't have to go."

"What?" Jess looks surprised by her words.

"We could...watch a movie or something..." Rory suddenly felt like she was back in high school.

Jess shrugs, "if you want me to stay."

"I do," Rory assures quickly, "come on." She leads the way to the living room where Luke had built an entertainment center large enough to hold at least the most watched movies of the household. After rifling through the dvd's contained in the cabinets she holds up two DVD's, "you up for a Charlie and the Chocolate factory vs Willy Wonka marathon?"

"Yeah," Jess nods, "sounds good. But I want to run out and get something quick before we start, that cool?"

"What, Jess needs his security blanket to protect him from the scary Oompa Loompas?" Rory teases.

"Something like that, I'll be back in fifteen minutes," Jess promises before leaving the house.

In the fifteen minutes that it takes Jess to get back Rory has changed out of her dress, and into a pair of pajama pants and an old Yale shirt, and is settled on the couch with the first movie geared up to start. "Finally," Rory calls, "you know it's just cruel to keep a Gilmore from her movie!"

"I know," Jess responds, "but I figured you'd forgive me if I brought you food."

"Food," Rory turns around quickly at the word and is surprised to see Jess holding two bags, one from Doose's and the other from Al's Pancake world. "Jess..." Rory's eyes fill with tears at the gesture.

Jess immediately drops the bags, "maybe this wasn't a good idea."

"No, no," Rory wipes at her eyes, "it was. Please bring me the food."

Tentatively Jess picks up the bag and moves over to the couch setting them on the coffee table, "I didn't mean to upset you."

Rory shakes her head but tears still shimmer in her eyes, "it's not your fault. I was just thinking about how often I've done this with my mom and how I won't again."

Jess seems to be at a loss as to what to do, but eventually the writer in him finds the words, "it's okay to be sad about doing these things without your mom. But you know Lorelai she wouldn't have wanted you to pass up the chance to sit and eat Twinkies and Lo Mein all night."

Rory can't help but smile at the comment, "you're right, she'd never want to be the cause of that." After taking a minute to collect herself Rory asks, "so you said something about Twinkies?"

Jess leans forward and dumps out the bag from Doose's containing enough junk good to make even Lorelai proud, "and Al's features Chinese food this month."

"Great, I'm starving."

"You do look starving, is your freakish Gilmore metabolism speeding up in your old age?"

"No one to feed me," Rory shrugs with a smile, keeping her tone light as well.

"The kitchen cabinets are stocked full and the fridge is jammed with casseroles, so I'm not sure how that's possible."

"First of all," Rory begins, "casseroles are either way to healthy _or _completely gross so Gilmore's as a rule do not eat them. And secondly if you think I've learned to cook in my, as you call it, old age you'd be sorely mistaken."

"Well, Caesar and I are planning on opening the diner back up on Sunday, so you only have to scrap by for just a couple more days."

"You already talked to Caesar?" Rory asks as she unwraps a chocolate bar, "sounds like you were pretty confident that I'd say yes."

"Well, I figured you'd take pity on your poor starving writer cousin."

Rory crinkles her nose again at the term cousin, "I would hardly call you a starving writer. Unless I'm wrong, which I don't think I am, your last book was on the top ten list for best selling novels last year."

"I was ninth," Jess smirks.

"And so modest after all that." Rory laughs before stating, "I read it, twice. Jess it was amazing, I actually added some things to the margin that I'd love to go over with you sometime."

"Okay," Jess nods as he rips open a bag of twizzlers.

"But not now, because now we must start this movie," Rory pulls her feet up underneath her before pressing play on the remote in her hand.


	8. Chapter 8

**_When the Bough Breaks - Chapter Eight _**

"Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration."

A.N. So I was slow in updating this one...mostly because I was pouting over the lack of reviews for the last chapter. But then I brushed it off and this chapter is for those ten of you who did review last chapter. Also to Brown-Eyed-Beauty87 who left me the 100th review about twizzlers...Once again thank you for review it means a ton to me...

* * *

"Hey," Jess calls out as Rory emerges from the house, he's just coming up the walk with a cup and a bag in his hand.

"Hey," Rory returns the greeting as they meet halfway.

"I brought you coffee and a Danish," Jess states holding out the bag, "I know how you're starving and all."

"Thanks," Rory awkwardly accepts the bag and the coffee.

"I figured you'd need the largest cup I could find, you were out cold last night."

Rory grins, "I know, and yet I magically made my way to bed." Rory laughs, she'd fallen asleep somewhere just after the wall licking scene in _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory._

"I had to do something," Jess laughs, "you were asleep on my shoulder and it was starting to fall asleep."

"Ha ha," Rory rolls her eyes, "I'm on my way to see if I can get Ellie to come back to the house, care to join me?"

"I can't," Jess shakes his head, "I'm meeting with Caesar to go over some things. But hey, how about I make you and Ellie dinner tonight, maybe that'll be some motivation for her to go back to the house?"

"You had me at dinner," Rory responds, "six sound good? You can cook here."

Jess nods and after offering brief words the two part ways, Jess to head back to the diner and Rory toward Sookie's with the hope that she talk her sister into coming home. Sookie is waiting when Rory shows up at the house and she looks more worried then Rory would care to see her, "Sookie what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Sookie waves her off, "I thought maybe you and Ellie could have some lunch together. I made a picnic for you guys to talk along. And talk."

"Did you talk to her?" Rory asks.

Sookie looks torn and Rory realizes that it's whatever Ellie had told her that's got Sookie so nervous, "yeah, and she's ready to talk to you."

"Sookie, what is it?" Rory asks.

"I feel like I should warn you," Sookie states, "but I think it's something you should hear from Ellie herself."

"Sookie..." Rory doesn't get any more of the words out before Ellie appears at the door with a picnic basket in hand.

"Let's go," she states before taking the stairs off of the porch quickly, "come on Rory."

Ellie avoids any kind of eye contact with Rory on the walk toward the lake but as soon as they've spread out the blanket and settled on it, with Sookie's wicker basket in between them she blurts out, "I don't want to live in Mom and Dad's house anymore. I want to move."

This revelation shocks Rory speechless for several minutes, "you what?"

"That's Mom and Dad's house," Ellie is on the verge of tears as she says this, "I can't live there without them."

Rory's voice shakes as she states, "that's not Mom and Luke's house. That's mine and Mom's house."

Tears slip down onto Ellie's cheeks and she hiccups back a sob before she states, "I can't live there Rory, not without them. I'm sorry," the sobs overtake the little girls emotions and within minutes she's thrown herself at Rory, clinging to her sobbing. "I'm sorry."

Rory wraps her arms around her sister tightly, trying to stay in check with her own emotions. Breaking down in front of Logan, and even Jess was acceptable. But it just wasn't with her eight-year-old sister. Finally after Ellie's sobs have subsided Rory takes a deep breath, preparing to ask a question that she's afraid might break her heart, "you really can't live there?"

"I know you and Mommy lived there for a long time by yourself before she and Daddy got married. And I know Mommy loved the house but everything reminds me of them and it smells like them and it looks like them and it makes me sad to even think about going back."

"Okay," Rory resigns.

"Really?"

"Yeah, we'll find somewhere else to live."

"Sookie didn't think you'd do it." Rory remains silent at this and Ellie adds, "Sookie said that I can stay with her...until we find another place to live."

"That's fine." The sisters fall silent for a long time before Rory asks, "do you think that you can handle being at the house for a little bit? Jess wants to make us dinner."

"Jess?" Ellie's eyes go wide, "Jess is back in town?"

Rory nods, "he got back the other day, he's going to run the diner now."

"He's going to stay here?"

"For now. So dinner?"

"I don't have to stay the night?" Ellie clarifies.

"You don't," Rory agrees.

Ellie thinks for a couple minutes before nodding, "okay."

* * *

Rory is lying on the couch, staring at the ceiling when there's a knock at her front door, "it's open!" She calls, she hadn't moved from the couch since she'd gotten back from lunch with Ellie and she had no intention of doign that so that she could see who was at the door. By the darkening outside she'd guess it to be Jess, but for all she knew it was a serial killer. Hell, maybe part of her was hoping that it was a serial killer knocking at the door.

"You shouldn't just leave your door open," no such luck, it is Jess with the warning.

"I was hoping for you to be a serial killer," Rory mumbles.

"Who knocks?"

"A polite serial killer," Rory sighs, remaining flat on the couch, eyes still trained on the ceiling.

Within moments Jess comes into view overhead, "did I wake you?"

"No," Rory meets his gaze and eventually he breaks the contact, the hazy shade of blue in her eyes made him sad. Losing Lorelai had damaged her permanently, he could see that.

"How'd everything with Ellie go?" Jess asks attempting to make simple conversation as he heads toward the kitchen.

"Oh fantastic," Rory states, sarcastic seeping into her tone, "we're moving."

"What?" Jess is standing over her again and this time his eyes lock onto her, "moving where?"

"Hell if I know," Rory snaps, "Ellie can't live here without Luke and...and Mom...She wants to move."

"Well that's..."

"What Jess?" Rory sits up quickly, "you want me to tell my recently orphaned eight-year-old sister that it's just to damn bad and that she's going to have to suck it up and live here?" Rory's lip trembles and that only makes her more angry, an anger that had started the instant she'd set foot in the house. Anger at her Mom for dying. And Luke. And the stupid drunk driver who'd killed them. And God for taking them. And whoever else she could blame. "What the hell happened to my life Jess?" Rory begs for him to answer this question, to give her some sort of answer that would make it hurt less. "I don't know what to do anymore. My mom...my is dead...gone..." She gasps for air but doesn't stop talking and doesn't start crying, "I've got nothing Jess, and yet more then I can deal with. I don't have my mom. I don't have a marriage I can depend on. Or now apparently my house. But I've got a sister I don't know how to take care of a and a baby on the way and..."

"A what?"

Rory's face pales considerably, but nothing else can be said because Sookie pushes the front door open, "you here Rory?"

"Yeah," Rory's voice shakes, "we're in here."

A.N. It's short, I know but I figured an update is an update. For those of you who are Rogan lovers be patient he'll be back in a couple chapters just in time to throw a temporary? permanent? monkey wrench in the future of Lit...Don't forget to review!


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